10 Year old boy dies in tragic rapids ride accident.

[Gutterflower]

I managed to miss this news story last week (the accident occurred on the 6th) but I've just come across a whole host of articles on it.

 

What was meant to be a happy family reunion turned into a tragedy last week when a 10 year old boy died at West Park in Wenzhou, China. The accident occured on the parks river rapids ride when the boy fell into the water and became trapped in the rides conveyor belt lift which brings the circular rapids boats back to the station.

 

A roughly translated news story from the Chinese site WRZB can be read below.

 

“The accident happened suddenly, The boys aunt, Ms. Zhang who had been watching from the shore quickly called for help, but the belt did not stop. The aunt to the control room operator who stopped the operation of the conveyor belt.

 

When Ms. Zhang and park staff recovered the boy from the water, “the child was already bloody, his hands and feet had been crushed and he was not breathing.” The boys family broke down in tears.

 

The boys relatives said, the playground should set up warning signs on the shore, or have staff remind visitors not to disembark without permission, After the incident, the city has set up an accident investigation team and has experts on the scene to conduct a field survey and evidence collection”

 

The ride was swiftly closed down following the accident and the river channel drained of water. My heart and deepest sorrow goes out to the boys family and friends.

 

It's always difficult to read and write about accidents at theme parks and its tough to get the whole story about any incident especially when all the news is in Chinese. However it does sounds like a tragic accident. Can anyone identify the manufacturer of the rapids?

Pictures of the ride and a the accident scene can be seen below.

 

 

Source: http://vhcoasters.com/

[larrygator]

Not clear if the child was riding alone. Also it is not clear if the ride ops instruct the riders to remain seated at all times.

 

But this type of accident is the reason we get ""restrained" so much.

[gisco]

I could see a kid 10 years old being excited and jumping up to get off the boat because the ride is almost over. The boat gets bumped or he loses his balance and falls in. Tragic

[ernierocker]

The part that is confusing me about this situation is this quote from the article:

 

 

The boys relatives said, the playground should set up warning signs on the shore, or have staff remind visitors not to disembark without permission

 

Is this some sort of translation error or does that say the boy fell into the rapids from off the ride and not from one of the rafts? I assumed like everyone else he fell out of the raft, but that mentions something about a playground along the "shore" of the ride.

[BigDipper 80]

^I read it as "The relatives said that the 'playground' (i.e. the amusement park) should have placed warning signs 'along the shore' (i.e. in the queue) about not jumping out of the rafts". That would make the most sense, it would seem. "Playground" almost appears to be a mistranslation of "amusement park", so I read it as such. I could be wrong, though.

[Gutterflower]

Hey.

Yeah its lost in translation. Amusement Park would be a better translation.